Nehemiah 9

On the twenty-fourth day of that same month, the Israelites gathered, fasting and wearing sackcloth, with dust on them. The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors. They stood in their places and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day. For another quarter they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God. Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the Levites' steps and cried out with a loud voice to the LORD their God. Then the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah—said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting! May your glorious name be blessed, exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the LORD.
You made the heavens, the highest heavens and all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them.
You give life to them all, and the host of heaven worships you. You are the LORD God, who chose Abram, brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites—to give it to his descendants.
You kept your words, for you are righteous. You saw the affliction of our ancestors in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea. You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all the people of his land, for you knew that they had acted arrogantly toward them.
You made a name for yourself that remains to this day. You divided the sea before them, and they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground.
You cast their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. You led them by day with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to light the way they were to go. You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven.
You gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. You made your holy Sabbath known to them and commanded them precepts, statutes, and a law through Moses your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water out of a rock for their thirst.
You told them to enter and possess the land you had raised your hand in an oath to give them. But they and our ancestors acted arrogantly, stiffened their necks, and did not obey your commandments. They refused to listen and did not remember the wonders you had done among them.
They stiffened their necks and, in their rebellion, appointed a leader to return to their slavery.
But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love, and you did not abandon them. Even when they made a cast-metal calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up from Egypt,’ and committed great acts of contempt, you, in your great compassion, did not abandon them in the wilderness.
The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day, to lead them on the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to give them light on the way they were to go. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them.
You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness;
they lacked nothing.
Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. You gave them kingdoms and peoples and apportioned these by region.
They took possession of the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan. You made their children as numerous as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land you had told their ancestors to enter and possess. Their children entered and possessed the land, and you subdued before them its inhabitants, the Canaanites.
You gave them into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them as they pleased. They captured fortified cities and fertile land.
They took possession of houses full of every good thing, cisterns hewn out of rock, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance.
They ate, were satisfied, grew fat, and delighted in your great goodness. But they were disobedient and rebelled against you.
They cast your law behind their backs and killed your prophets, who warned them to turn back to you.
They committed great acts of contempt. So you gave them into the hands of their adversaries, who oppressed them.
In their distress they would cry out to you, and you would hear from heaven.
In your great compassion you would give them deliverers, who rescued them from the hands of their adversaries. But as soon as they had rest, they would again do evil before you.
You would abandon them into the hands of their enemies, who ruled over them.
Yet when they cried out to you again, you would hear from heaven and rescue them many times in your compassion. You warned them to turn back to your law, but they acted arrogantly and did not obey your commandments.
They sinned against your ordinances, by which a person will live if he obeys them.
They stubbornly turned their shoulders away, stiffened their necks, and would not listen. For many years you were patient with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets, but they would not listen.
So you gave them into the hands of the peoples of the lands. Yet in your great compassion you did not make an end of them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God. Now, our God, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God who keeps the covenant and faithful love, do not regard as small all the hardship that has come upon us—upon our kings, our rulers, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people—from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day. You have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have acted faithfully, while we have acted wickedly. Our kings, our rulers, our priests, and our ancestors did not keep your law or pay attention to your commandments and the testimonies by which you warned them. Even in their own kingdom, with the great goodness you gave them and in the spacious, fertile land you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil deeds. Here we are today, slaves!
In the land you gave our ancestors to eat its fruit and its good things, here we are, slaves in it. Its abundant produce goes to the kings you have set over us because of our sins.
They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.” Because of all this, we are making a binding agreement and putting it in writing. On the sealed document are our rulers, our Levites, and our priests.

Rights and attribution